


one day at a time ('til we're together again)

by tatoeba



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Canon fic, Domestic, I don't know lol, I had feelings, M/M, i guess?, kinda angsty, mostly romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 16:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19088647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatoeba/pseuds/tatoeba
Summary: they'll get through this. baekhyun is sure of that.





	one day at a time ('til we're together again)

**Author's Note:**

> this is the enlistment fic no one asked for lol enjoy? 
> 
> thank u to bianca as always for reading it over and helping me figure out another pesky title ❤️

Baekhyun expects his apartment to be quiet when he returns from a late night vocal lesson. Instead, there’s the soft hum of the television and clattering from the kitchen that brings a smile to his face and warmth to his chest. After years of living in dorms, surrounded by some of his most favorite people, moving into his own apartment has been both a blessing and a curse. Baekhyun likes having his space and place to put all his things, but he misses the noise sometimes, he misses coming home after a long day to have someone to talk to and cuddle or simply to not be alone.

He’d made sure to give Kyungsoo the keycode after he got his place. Aside from their managers, he’s the only one who has access, so it’s no surprise to find Kyungsoo puttering away in Baekhyun’s kitchen at 12:17 in the morning, wearing simple black sweatpants and a faded grey shirt that’s far too big to have come from his own closet.

“Hey,” Baekhyun says softly as he joins him, setting his keys and phone and wallet onto the kitchen counter so he can take Kyungsoo in his hands instead, wrapping his arms around him from behind and notching his chin on Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

Kyungsoo chuckles, pats Baekhyun’s hand with one of his, before he returns to doling out tea into two mugs. “How was your lesson?” he asks.

“Amazing,” Baekhyun says grandly. “I’m a vocal genius, afterall.”

Baekhyun can’t see his face but he knows Kyungsoo’s rolling his eyes. He probably won’t even bother deigning Baekhyun with an answer, and after a couple of seconds pass by and the window of reply has closed up, Baekhyun’s proven right. He laughs into Kyungsoo’s ear, holds him tighter when Kyungsoo flinches away, and says once he’s settled, “When did you get here?”

Kyungsoo hums, picking up a jar of honey and spooning a little into one of the mugs that Baekhyun now knows is for him. “Probably just after you left,” he says. “Two hours ago?” He hums thoughtfully again, gently swirls a spoon into Baekhyun’s tea. “I’ve just been watching some TV.”

“Bored?” Baekhyun says but Kyungsoo shakes his head.

“No,” he says, twisting around in Baekhyun’s arms so he can glance up at Baekhyun’s face. “It’s been nice.”

There’s something in the tone of his voice, in the darkness of his eyes, that has Baekhyun frowning, considering, like something is off, something isn’t quite right.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, stepping back just enough that he can look at Kyungsoo properly, letting his hands slide down to rest at his hips instead.

Kyungsoo stares at him for one long moment, then smiles and turns away. “Let’s sit down, okay?” he says and he picks up both mugs of tea. “You look like you’re gonna fall over any second. Why do you insist on having lessons so late again?”

“It’s when I sing my best,” Baekhyun replies easily, giving Kyungsoo the distraction he clearly craves right now. “I sing even better in the middle of the night but for some reason there aren’t any vocal coaches available at three in the morning.”

Kyungsoo snorts at that, setting their mugs onto the coffee table before he gets comfortable on the couch. Baekhyun doesn’t give him any space, flopping right down next to him and draping his legs over Kyungsoo’s lap. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but doesn’t shove him away, instead pats his knee gently before reaching over to pick up Baekhyun’s tea. He hands it to him, their fingers brushing lightly against each other, and even that little touch has Baekhyun’s stomach swooping with pleasure. He’s happy to be home and he’s happy to see Kyungsoo, even if there might be something wrong, something serious that Kyungsoo clearly wants to tell him.

They don’t really speak much for awhile, sipping idly at their tea instead. Kyungsoo holds his mug in one hand, while his other rests on Baekhyun’s knee again, gently stroking his thumb over his leg. It’s quiet and soothing and Baekhyun could probably fall asleep like this, just from Kyungsoo’s touch and Kyungsoo’s presence and the warm tea melting his insides.

He stays awake though, watching Kyungsoo occasionally, the way his mouth parts when he lifts his mug up to his lips, the way his lashes flutter against his cheeks when he blinks, the way Baekhyun’s shirt hangs loosely off his shoulders but makes him look so cute that Baekhyun wants to wrap him up in his arms again and kiss him over and over. He probably could do that right now, he thinks, as he sips on his tea and enjoys the sweet taste of honey. Kyungsoo probably would let him, would probably like it, actually, another form of distraction from whatever it is that’s bothering him that he can’t find the words to explain.

But Baekhyun is already pretty comfortable like this and he should drink his tea while it’s still warm. So he glances around the apartment instead; Baekhyun hasn’t had the place very long and he’s still occasionally thinking of what else to add around the place to make it a little more homey. He wishes he could bring Mongryong here from his parent’s place, but Baekbeom might kill him, if Baekhyun’s niece and nephew don’t get to it first.

He tugs his phone out from his pocket, having brought it with him when they migrated to the living room from the kitchen, intent on sending Baekbeom a message about it anyway, when he notices the date on the screen and suddenly everything makes sense.

“Oh,” he says as he drags his eyes up from his phone to Kyungsoo, who is watching him like he knows just what Baekhyun’s realized. “It’s today, isn’t it?”

Kyungsoo nods. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “I mean, it probably won’t be out for another like eight hours or whatever, but--”

“Shit,” Baekhyun says, looking down at his phone again as if it’s lying to him about the date. “Didn’t you _just_ apply? How is it today already?”

That makes Kyungsoo laugh as he nods again. “Yeah,” he says, rubbing the side of his neck. “I know it’s not really a big deal, but…”

As Kyungsoo trails off, Baekhyun takes matter into his own hands, plucking Kyungsoo’s mug free and setting both back onto the coffee table. He slides his legs off from Kyungsoo’s lap so he can scoot in closer to Kyungsoo’s side, wraps an arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulders. “What are you worried about?” he asks.

Kyungsoo lets out such a deep sigh that Baekhyun can feel it. “I don’t know,” he says. “The acceptance? The fact that it’s really happening now, that it’s final and there’s no going back?”

Baekhyun bites his lip, sensing that Kyungsoo isn’t quite done speaking yet. He rubs his hand up and down Kyungsoo’s arm.

“The reaction, too,” Kyungsoo adds after a moment, picking at the fabric of his sweats by his knee where there’s a bit of a loose thread. “What the fans will think, if they’ll understand or--”

“That sort of thing doesn’t usually bother you,” Baekhyun says. “Or, well, you try not to pay attention to it that much, I guess.”

For a moment, Kyungsoo says nothing, like he’s still unsure of how to express the thoughts in his head into actual speakable words. Baekhyun watches as he continues fussing with his pants, until he suddenly stops, flatting his palms down against his thighs and letting out another deep, tired breath.

“It’s...different this time,” is all he says and Baekhyun finds himself sighing too, leaning in slightly to Kyungsoo’s side so he can rest his head against Kyungsoo’s.

“Yeah,” he murmurs, “it is.”

They sit like that for awhile longer, not saying anything, not even moving. Baekhyun’s thoughts are running wild. Somehow, in between everything else going on recently like CBX’s concerts and Minseok’s enlistment, Baekhyun had sort of forgotten about this, even though he’s known for months. Kyungsoo had been considering it since the start of the year, but especially after the tour got postponed. Baekhyun remembers how he’d brought it up one night, just the two of them, quiet and unsure, like Baekhyun would be mad or upset about it instead of open and understanding. He was a little upset, sure, because it’s never easy thinking about enlistment, about the eighteen months of not seeing someone that he’s seen practically everyday for seven years. It was hard enough with Minseok, and Kyungsoo is different.

Kyungsoo is Baekhyun’s boyfriend, Kyungsoo is Baekhyun’s love, Kyungsoo is the one Baekhyun talks to when he wakes up and before he goes to sleep, even if it’s over the phone or through a text or on the nights like this when Kyungsoo lets himself into Baekhyun’s apartment and spends the day.

“You don’t think it’s a bad idea?” Kyungsoo had asked that night he’d brought it up, lying in bed with Baekhyun.

Baekhyun had shaken his head, reached for Kyungsoo’s hand and laced their fingers together. “No,” he says. “We all have to go at some point. This makes the most sense for you.”

“Do you think everyone else will see it that way?” Kyungsoo had asked next, and Baekhyun could tell this was really troubling him. Kyungsoo who always spoke his mind, who was blunt and to the point and gave the impression that he was sure about everything he said or did, he was worried about this, about telling the rest of the group that he wanted to enlist early.

Baekhyun wanted to erase every worry away for him. He’d cupped Kyungsoo’s face in his hands, rubbed his thumb over his cheeks, and had said, “Yes, they will.”

He’d felt the way Kyungsoo had shuddered out a little relieved sort of breath, like even if he instinctively knew it, he needed to hear Baekhyun say it.

“I mean,” Baekhyun had added, wanting to dispel some of the tension in the air, “you laid out your case really well. You should’ve been a lawyer.”

Kyungsoo had huffed out a laugh at that and tugged Baekhyun into a kiss, short and sweet but full of gratitude, and that had been that. A few days later, when Kyungsoo told the rest of the group over a dinner, Baekhyun had held his hand under the table as he picked the words out carefully and answered everyone’s questions.

As expected, no one was mad, no one was disappointed, but they all looked at each other almost forlornly, with the understanding that they were getting older and things were changing. Minseok’s enlistment date had already been determined if not yet announced, and Kyungsoo would have to submit his own application soon to be ready by the summer. Sehun kept staring at the table instead of at anyone else and Junmyeon had reached over to squeeze his shoulder, faltering only for a second when Sehun had flinched, like he didn’t want to be comforted, even though at the same time, he did.

Baekhyun, never a fan of heavy conversations and despair, especially between his favorite group of people, had cracked, “Hey, Junmyeon-hyung, I thought it was your turn next! How much did you pay Kyungsoo to enlist earlier so you could keep going on fancy vacations all year? That’s not gonna work with me!”

Everyone had looked at Baekhyun in surprise. Kyungsoo had gratefully squeezed Baekhyun’s knee. Junmyeon had shouted, “Ya, Byun Baekhyun, be quiet!” and the spell in the room had been broken. They all laughed, Jongdae slapping Baekhyun on the back on his other side and teasing, “Don’t even pretend, if the bribe was good enough, you’d enlist tomorrow.”

“Can you take Jongdae with you?” Baekhyun joked to Kyungsoo, who merely rolled his eyes but then smiled, one of his bright, pretty smiles that never failed to make Baekhyun want to kiss him. So he did.

“Ugh, at least we won’t have to see _that_ for two years,” Jongin had said, wrinkling his nose at them in mock disgust and Baekhyun had to push the sinking sensation in his gut aside at the reminder to retort back, “Don’t worry, I’ll just kiss you instead, Jonginnie.”

Thinking about it all now brings a small smile to Baekhyun’s face. He glances over to where Kyungsoo is still sitting beside him, quiet and immersed in his thoughts, and feels a little helpless. He’s not sure what to say to make it better, to lessen the worry etched in the furrow of Kyungsoo’s brow.

But. He knows what he can say to reassure Kyungsoo that he’s on his side, no matter how fans react or how nervous he feels or how uncertain the future seems to be.

“Hey,” he whispers, poking at Kyungsoo’s thigh with two fingers. “I love you.”

Kyungsoo looks over at him, eyes dark and deep from behind his glasses and just this shade of surprised, like he’s never used to Baekhyun saying those words aloud, even though it’s far from the first time. Then his expression softens and his lips twitch at the corners as he smiles, and he says, “Yeah, I love you too.”

Baekhyun beams, plants a wet kiss to Kyungsoo’s cheek, and then finally drags himself up from the couch. He holds his hands out for Kyungsoo, who takes them with an amused smile, lets himself be hauled up to his feet as well.

“Let’s go to bed,” Baekhyun says, planting his hands on Kyungsoo’s shoulders and steering him toward his room. “We can worry about everything else tomorrow.” He pauses, halfway out of the living room, adds, “Not that there really _is_ anything to worry about, you know.” He pushes at Kyungsoo’s shoulders again, gets them moving down the hall. “The fans will be upset for awhile because that’s how it is, but then they’ll understand your reasons the same way the rest of us did, and it’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine!”

“Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo laughs, shrugging Baekhyun’s hands off him once they make it to his room, whirling around to look at him with bemused eyes. “You’re being silly.”

“I just don’t want you to worry about anything,” Baekhyun says, pouting, and Kyungsoo smiles at him, reaches up to pat Baekhyun’s cheek.

“I’m not worried, really,” he says as he lowers his hand. “I don’t know how to explain. It’s just weird. It’s different. It’s not like when I’ve accepted a new acting role and I’m waiting for it to be publicly announced, you know? I can’t exactly drop out of this.”

Baekhyun stares at him. “Do you want to?” he asks. “Are you regretting it?”

“No,” Kyungsoo answers without pause. “I still think it’s the right decision.” He sighs and heads for the bed, setting his glasses down onto the side table before he throws the covers back and climbs in. He looks at Baekhyun for a moment, then pats the space beside him.

Baekhyun joins him easily. He’d gone to his vocal lesson in sweats and a t-shirt so he doesn’t bother to change, figuring he can throw off the pants later if it gets too warm. He fluffs up his pillows and sinks down with a sigh, rolls onto his side so he can look at Kyungsoo under the bright light of his room.

“It’s weird to think I won’t be at the concerts with the rest of you,” Kyungsoo says. “In all this time, I’ve never missed a concert, you know?”

“Don’t worry,” Baekhyun says. “I’ll sing all your lines so amazingly no one will even notice you’re not there.”

Kyungsoo snorts. “Just for that I’m giving my lines to Jongdae,” he says and when Baekhyun whines in protest, Kyungsoo quiets him down by gently brushing his fingers along Baekhyun’s forehead, pushing his hair out of his eyes, then down the side of his face, light and loving and longing.

“It’s weird to think I won’t have this, too,” Kyungsoo whispers and Baekhyun sucks in a sharp breath at the reminder of the one thing he has tried desperately not to think about ever since the day Kyungsoo officially applied for enlistment.

“Don’t,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t want to think about it.” He tries to laugh it off, adds, “Didn’t I just say you’ll be fine? That we’ll be fine? Didn’t _you_ just tell all the fans that it’s not like Minseok-hyung’s moving to another country? You can’t just go back on your words and make this all weird and sappy like I’ll never see you again or we’ll never talk at all in the next two years and--”

Kyungsoo shuts him up with a kiss, tugging Baekhyun in close with a hand fisted into the front of his shirt. Baekhyun whimpers against his lips, whines in half-hearted protest, because he wants to be annoyed with Kyungsoo for bringing up the fact that they’ll be separated for eighteen months, but he can’t. He can’t. It’s Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun has never been able to be mad at him.

He’s not sure how long they kiss, but it helps. It eases away the ache in Baekhyun’s chest at the thought of Kyungsoo’s enlistment. He doesn’t think that anything will change while they’re apart, but he also doesn’t want to assume that everything will stay exactly the same. By the time Baekhyun enlists in the next year, Kyungsoo will have already been gone for months and it might be harder to keep in touch. Eighteen months isn’t a very long time, but right now, when Baekhyun thinks about it too long, it almost feels like an eternity.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo murmurs when they eventually pull apart. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Baekhyun says quickly. “We probably should talk about it but...not right now.” He huffs out a laugh and says, “It’s not like you’re enlisting tomorrow, you know? We still have a lot of time.”

“You’re right,” Kyungsoo says as he finds one of Baekhyun’s hands with his own and squeezes his fingers. “One day at a time.”

“One day at a time,” Baekhyun repeats and then kisses Kyungsoo once more. “Can we sleep now? I’m exhausted.”

Kyungsoo chuckles but nods and he groans a little when he climbs out of bed to turn out the light. Baekhyun wraps him up in his arms when he returns, holding him close to his chest like he’ll disappear otherwise, and lets himself push away all the upsetting thoughts to focus on what’s real and what’s now. Kyungsoo is still here, for another whole month, and that’s all that matters.

 

 

*

 

 

“Wow, you’re trending worldwide,” Baekhyun says in the morning. It’s almost noon, actually. They slept in pretty late, and woke up just before Kyungsoo’s enlistment was made public.

“Is that good or bad?” Kyungsoo questions as he walks back into the bedroom, holding a mug of coffee and a bowl of fruit that Baekhyun didn’t even know he had in his apartment. Maybe Kyungsoo had brought it with him last night.

“It means you’re popular, babe,” Baekhyun laughs, rolling over in bed so he’s lying on his stomach, propped up on his elbows with his phone in his hands. He watches Kyungsoo take a sip of his coffee, then set it aside so he can take a bite out of a strawberry. Baekhyun opens his mouth pointedly and Kyungsoo chuckles but holds out the rest of it for Baekhyun to eat. “Mmm,” Baekhyun says, licking his lips contently. “I love strawberries.”

“I know,” Kyungsoo says softly, and he offers Baekhyun another. “So, everyone is really shocked by the news, huh?”

“Well, yeah,” Baekhyun says as he chews, ignoring the disapproving look Kyungsoo gives him. He swallows, grins down at his phone, at the tweets he’d been looking at filled with confusion and despair and eventual understanding, and says, “You’re enlisting earlier than you need to. That’s rare for us idols.”

When he looks back up, Kyungsoo’s staring into his bowl of fruit like it’s offended him and Baekhyun reaches out to pat his arm. “Are you okay?” he asks. “You seem kinda tense.”

Kyungsoo lets out a short laugh, more a wisp of his breath than anything else. “Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just…” He sets the bowl onto the bed between them, reaches for his coffee again and takes a sip. “It’s finally sunk in that I’m going and now I have to think about everything I gotta do before I go, you know?” he says after a few moments, then lets out a little chuckle. “Guess I’ve gotta shave my head again soon, huh.”

“At least we already know you look super handsome with a shaved head,” Baekhyun teases, and he stretches his arm out far enough to run his hand over Kyungsoo’s hair before Kyungsoo swats him away with a laugh. “You’re gonna send me pictures of you in your uniform, right? God, I can’t believe you’ll look so hot and I won’t even be able to strip you out of it.”

Kyungsoo snorts, setting his mug aside again and surprising Baekhyun when he puts the fruit away too in favor of flattening Baekhyun to the bed and crawling over him. “Yeah,” he says in a low voice. “It’s totally unfair.”

“Right?” Baekhyun breathes out, hands settling at Kyungsoo’s hips just as Kyungsoo dips down to kiss him.

He sighs into it, into the warmth of Kyungsoo’s lips, and the gentle brush of his fingers as they slip into his hair. He tastes the coffee on Kyungsoo’s tongue and seeks out more, relishing the way Kyungsoo opens up for him, lets him in, gives back just as much. Baekhyun thinks he could spend all day in bed like this, just kissing Kyungsoo, holding him, touching him, tasting him, and ignoring everything else. Nothing else matters now anyway. Only Kyungsoo. Only this.

They’re smiling by the time they pull apart, Kyungsoo licking his plush, red lips as he draws back, his eyes bright and warm instead of tired and a little sad. Baekhyun pinches his cheeks, just because he can, just because it makes Kyungsoo laugh brilliantly and smack his hands away and kiss him all over again until they’re both laughing, bubbling with happiness.

“Do you wanna go somewhere?” Kyungsoo asks suddenly and Baekhyun blinks at him in surprise.

“What, like right now?” Baekhyun says, confused.

Kyungsoo shakes his head, scratches the side of his face like he does when he’s embarrassed, and slides completely off Baekhyun’s lap which makes Baekhyun whine in protest. That has him smiling though, and he pats Baekhyun’s thigh reassuringly as he says, “No, I meant like a vacation.” He picks up his mug again but doesn’t drink any of it, just holds it in his hands like it’s meant to ground him. “I’ve been to Japan with Chanyeol and Kwangsoo and everyone a few times already, but I thought--I think it’d be nice if we could--together--”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says immediately, practically jumping up to sit on the bed in his excitement. He doesn’t have to think about it. “Yes, let’s do it. Where do you wanna go? Tokyo again? Hong Kong? Jeju? We could go to Hawaii!”

Kyungsoo’s face lights up in amusement the more options Baekhyun throws out until he finally just grabs him by the nape of the neck and draws him down into a kiss. It quiets Baekhyun easily and he kisses back slowly, gently, until he’s warm all over from the pleasure of Kyungsoo’s affection.

“Wherever you wanna go,” Kyungsoo says. “I’ll take you there. I know you might be busy with concert stuff but--”

“It’s fine,” Baekhyun interjects. “We’ll make it happen.”

Kyungsoo looks at him for a moment, like he’s determining the genuity of Baekhyun’s reply, but before too much time passes, he smiles and nods. “Good,” he says with finality and Baekhyun grins back at him as Kyungsoo lifts his mug up to take another drink.

“It’ll be fun,” Baekhyun says. “Maybe I can even vlog some of it for my channel.” He flops back down onto his front, scooting closer to Kyungsoo until he can rest his head against his thigh. “Adventures in Hawaii featuring D.O.”

Kyungsoo flicks Baekhyun’s forehead and drinks more of his coffee in response. Baekhyun scrunches his face up at him and Kyungsoo taps him on the nose with his finger. Baekhyun catches his hand in both of his, holds it against his chest, lets his own fingers brush over Kyungsoo’s knuckles, trace the lines on the flat of his palm.

“Do you have anything going on today?” Kyungsoo asks after a few moments of comfortable silence. He picks out another strawberry and bites into it and Baekhyun watches his lips as he chews.

“I was gonna go to the gym with Chanyeol,” Baekhyun says and he slides a hand out around the bed until he can find his phone, checks the time. “In a few hours,” he adds. “More vocal lessons tonight too.”

Kyungsoo hums at that and Baekhyun unlocks his phone to check messages but is taken back to the twitter app that he left open. “Oh,” he says, refreshing the screen and noticing a bunch of new tweets under the EXO tag he’d been checking, “they announced the tour today too. Did you know about that?”

“Youngmin-hyung mentioned that they might,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m not surprised. You know how the company likes utilizing diversion tactics.”

Baekhyun huffs. “Even though it never actually works, does it?” he says. “Fans are still gonna be upset about you leaving. Fuck, they’re probably more upset now.” He sighs, tosses his phone aside again, tired just thinking about all of it. “Well, at least that’s another secret we no longer have to keep.”

“Hey, will you visit me once I enlist?” Kyungsoo asks and it’s so unexpected Baekhyun practically gives himself whiplash turning to look at him.

“What kind of question is that?” he says, surprised to find Kyungsoo looking at him so seriously. “Of course I will.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, pulling himself up to sit so he can meet Kyungsoo’s eyes directly. “I’ll be your first ever visitor. I’ll visit you so much it’ll be like you never left.”

Kyungsoo cracks a smile at that but then glances down at the mug in his hands. “It might be hard, though, having you visit,” he says.

That has Baekhyun pausing in confusion. “Why?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.

“Not being able to kiss you when I see you, not being able to even hold your hand,” Kyungsoo says slowly, carefully, like it pains him to do so, and even the smile on his face has cracked at the edges, sad. “It’s different than when we’re on stage, you know? We’re hiding it then too, but I know I’ll see you right after, backstage, or in the car on the way to the dorm and I can kiss you then and I can hold you then, but this...It’s different. It’ll be so different.” He looks up at Baekhyun as he finishes and his eyes are broken too, and he looks away just as quickly, lifting his mug to his lips for another sip like it’s the only thing that comforts him.

Baekhyun’s chest aches. An unsettling knot tightens in his stomach. He doesn’t like thinking about this, doesn’t like talking about this. He knows they will have to, eventually, but it’s not like Kyungsoo is leaving today or even tomorrow. There’s still time, there’s still so much time.

“That just means you have to kiss me and hold my hand a hundred times more than usual in the next month to make up for the two years we’ll be apart,” Baekhyun says, demands. “I’ll even do the math, okay? I’ll figure out the quota and you’ll have to fulfill it so that by the time I come visit you, you won’t have even missed me, okay?”

Kyungsoo lowers his mug but doesn’t say anything, looks at Baekhyun almost unseeingly, and so Baekhyun crawls forward, takes the mug out of his hand and sets it aside so he can clasp both of Kyungsoo’s hands in his. “Okay?” he asks, pointedly shaking Kyungsoo’s hands, then releasing them so he can cup Kyungsoo’s face instead.

It takes a moment, but then Kyungsoo is nodding, smiling, is covering Baekhyun’s hands with his own, threading their fingers together. “Okay,” he says, agrees, and then smiles even wider. “I guess we should get started on fulfilling that quota then, huh?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun breaths out, and the knot in his stomach loosening enough to make it easy to laugh, delighted. “That’s exactly what we should do.”

Kyungsoo kisses him, and kisses him, and kisses him. Over and over and over until the first kiss turns into the twentieth into the hundredth until Baekhyun’s completely forgotten to count at all because the way Kyungsoo’s mouth feels against his own eases the worry in his veins and the way Kyungsoo’s hands slip into his hair or underneath his shirt sparks desire in Baekhyun’s chest and the way Kyungsoo whispers Baekhyun’s name into his ear, trails his lips down his jaw sounds like the most beautiful of arias that warm Baekhyun’s heart.

“We’ll be okay, you know,” Baekhyun says sometime later, when they’re lying in bed together, Baekhyun stroking his fingers through Kyungsoo’s hair and Kyungsoo’s legs tangled with his. “It’s gonna fucking suck, but we’ll be okay.”

“I know we will,” Kyungsoo says, gently rubbing the side of his foot along Baekhyun’s calf. “It’ll go by so fast.”

“Not fast enough I’m sure,” Baekhyun laughs.

“No, not fast enough,” Kyungsoo agrees, “but it’ll be faster than we think it is now.” He shifts back slightly so he can look up at Baekhyun and adds, “Besides, just think of how amazing the sex will be the first time we meet each other again?”

Baekhyun stares at him for a moment, and Kyungsoo quirks a brow at him like he’s just waiting for Baekhyun to disagree, but instead Baekhyun laughs and crushes Kyungsoo into his arms. “Fuck, I can’t fucking wait for that,” he says as Kyungsoo pushes him down against the bed and props himself up against Baekhyun’s chest.

He gazes down at Baekhyun with eyes so warm, so affectionate, so full of love it leaves Baekhyun a little breathless just looking back at him, wondering if Kyungsoo can see the same in his own expression. He hopes so. He hopes Kyungsoo can tell exactly how much Baekhyun loves him and how much Baekhyun is going to miss him. How much Baekhyun feels like he’s already missing him, even though he hasn’t gone.

He reaches out to gently brush his fingers along Kyungsoo’s forehead, across one of his thick brows, down the side of his face. Kyungsoo tilts his head slightly, rubs his cheek into Baekhyun’s palm, and then smiles so wide it makes Baekhyun smile too.

“Come on,” he says, patting Baekhyun’s chest with his hands as he sits up. “Let’s go out. Get lunch. My treat.”

Baekhyun groans, rolling over in bed and smooshing his face into the pillows in protest like he’s pretending to go back to sleep. Kyungsoo eventually manages to coax him out of the sheets and into the shower instead with sweet, tender kisses that leave Baekhyun’s whole body warm and tingly long afterward.

As they clean up and get ready for the day, Baekhyun pushes aside all the worries about Kyungsoo’s impending enlistment to focus instead of the fact that Kyungsoo is here, right now, laughing at him, smiling at him, pressing him up against the bathroom counter to kiss him. Kyungsoo has no regrets about his decision so Baekhyun shouldn’t have any worries either. He supports him, knows it’s a decision he didn’t come to lightly, remembers vividly how anxious he was about it before finally submitting the application, and now that it’s confirmed and out in the open, he can tell Kyungsoo is much more relieved, more sure of himself.

Besides, two years is nothing, in the grand scheme of things. They’ve been together for seven, dating for three, and Baekhyun knows that his feelings aren’t going to change. He’s confident that Kyungsoo’s won’t either. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, afterall. They’ll get through this. Baekhyun is sure of that.

“You better not fall in love with some hot beefy dude in your unit,” Baekhyun says as he watches Kyungsoo dress in an old set of clothes he’d left at Baekhyun’s apartment a week ago.

“Shut up, Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo says, pressing him up against the dresser to kiss him this time, laughing into Baekhyun’s lips.

Yeah, Baekhyun thinks, smiling as he kisses back, they’re gonna be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. i didn't really plan on writing this fic, it just sort of happened. i had a lot of feelings i guess and i wanted to write something short and sweet. i hope i did the sensitive topic justice lol 
> 
> 2\. i hope u enjoyed! thank u very much for reading as always ❤️
> 
> 3\. eid mubarak to any and all muslim readers out there!! :3
> 
> come cry with me about baeksoo on [twitter](http://twitter.com/xingkais) | [curiouscat](http://curiouscat.me/xingkais)


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